2025-07-05 03:52:38The air was cold.
Dust floated in the still room, lit only by the flickering light above. The smell of burnt wires and rust hung heavy, choking the silence. On the cracked floor, a young man slowly stirred.
His name was Jonah.
Jonah groaned and turned his head. Everything ached. His fingers twitched. His arms were heavy. But most of all, he was confused.
He opened his eyes slowly. The ceiling spun. Why am I still alive?
He remembered stepping on those wires. He remembered the jolt, sharp, blinding pain. Then, nothing. Blackness.
He shouldn’t be breathing. He shouldn't be alive.
But he was. The wires had carried thousands of volts. No one should survive that. Yet here he was. Sitting up. Breathing. Alive.
His heart raced as he looked down at his hands. They were trembling, but not burnt. No blood. No sign of injury. His chest rose and fell with each breath, shaky but strong.
Something wasn’t right. He stood up, slowly, and winced. Then he paused.
Why does my body feel so light?
It wasn’t normal. He felt quicker, stronger, but it was also scary. Like something had changed deep inside him, something he couldn’t explain.
And then he remembered something else, the voice.
Before he lost consciousness, just before everything went black, he had heard a voice. A woman’s voice. Calm and strange. She had said something about… a system?
Jonah looked around the room. “Hello?” he called, his voice hoarse. “Is anyone there?”
Silence.
He walked slowly, his boots crunching broken glass on the ground. His eyes scanned every corner. There was no one. Just the dim light, the cracked walls, and the heavy air.
“Who was that voice?” he whispered. “Where did she go?”
There was no answer.
His axe lay on the floor near the wall. He picked it up, gripping the handle tightly. It gave him comfort, even if it felt small in his hands now. Too small.
He pushed open the metal door and stepped into the hallway. The air outside was colder. The halls were dark and empty, but he could hear something, a soft groan, a scratch, maybe even a breath.
He wasn’t alone.
Jonah crouched low and crept forward, his eyes sharp. Something was wrong. Too quiet.
Then he stopped. His breath caught.
Five zombies were standing at the end of the hallway.
They weren’t moving. Not yet. Their eyes were pale and lifeless. Their skin hung like wet rags. They looked like statues, frozen in place.
Why haven’t they noticed me?
Jonah held his breath and took a step back.
Suddenly, clang!
His axe slipped and hit the floor with a sharp, loud clang. It echoed through the hall.
The zombies twitched. Then they turned.
All five heads snapped toward him.
“No…” Jonah whispered.
The zombies snarled and charged.
He dove for the axe and grabbed it. Just then, a wave of power surged through his body. His muscles tensed, his blood rushed. This wasn’t adrenaline. It was something else. Something stronger.
One of the zombies reached for his throat, but Jonah moved faster.
CRACK!
He brought the axe down hard and split the zombie’s skull clean in two. Blood sprayed. The body dropped.
He turned and swung again. Another one down. And again. And again.
He didn’t stop. His body moved like it knew what to do.
Within seconds, the hallway was silent again. The five zombies lay in a bloody heap.
Jonah stood over them, breathing hard. But he didn’t feel tired. Not at all.
“What… what just happened?” he asked himself. His hands were still holding the axe, but it wasn’t shaking. It felt natural. Like an extension of his arm.
Was it the axe? he wondered.
He stared at it. But it looked ordinary. Worn. Bloodstained. Not magical.
Then, he heard the voice again.
“System Host: Level Up. Strength increased.”
Jonah froze.
It wasn’t a woman this time. It was a clear voice in his head. Calm. Robotic.
“Who said that?” he shouted, looking around. “Who are you? Show yourself!”
“I am the voice of the System you now control.”
Jonah’s breath caught.
There was something inside him. Something alive. It was speaking to him.
“What are you talking about? What system? What did you do to me?” His heart was racing now. “Am I going crazy?”
“You are not crazy. You are the host of the Slayer System. You awakened it through the Catalyst, your refusal to die.”
Jonah staggered back.
The wires. His near-death. His will to survive. That was the Catalyst?
“Wait… Does this mean I have powers?” he asked, his voice shaky. “Am I… different now?”
“You are beyond human limits. Each zombie you slay increases your level. With each level comes greater strength, speed, and skill.”
He couldn’t believe it. But deep down, he knew it was true. He had changed.
“How many did I kill just now?” he asked quietly.
“Five. You are now Level 6. Title: Amateur Zombie Slayer.”
“Level 6…” Jonah looked down at his hands. They looked the same, but they weren’t. He felt the difference.
He clenched his fists and smiled faintly. “So… if I keep fighting, I keep getting stronger?”
“Correct.”
He nodded slowly. “Then maybe… maybe I can survive this.”
But then, a scream shattered his thoughts.
“Help us! Please! Anyone!”
It was a woman’s voice. Muffled. Panicked. From somewhere nearby.
Jonah turned toward the sound. “There are still people in this building,” he whispered.
His eyes narrowed. He gripped his axe tightly. “I need to help them.”
He started running down the dark hall, ready for whatever came next.
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Chapter 249. The Reborn Serra
The first signs appeared at the edge of New Crest’s main plaza. Jonah was walking along the light-threaded boulevard, cane tapping against stone that glimmered faintly with the breath of the city. The hybrids moved in synchronized streams around him, their skin flashing muted amber and violet bands. He paused at the intersection of the luminous avenues when the crowd parted, not with force, not with awareness, but as if they recognized something beyond perception.A figure stood there, framed by the rising sun reflecting off the crystalline spires. She was serene, hands clasped lightly at her waist. The crowd immediately slowed, their steps measured. Jonah’s cane struck the ground once, twice, and he waited. Something about the figure’s stance, the subtle tilt of her head, felt familiar.She stepped forward. Her movement was precise, calculated, yet effortless. Every hybrid nearby pulsed in gentle alignment, a chorus of warmth and light. Machines ceased minor processes mid-task. D
Chapter 248. Dreamers of Light
The first report came in just before midnight. A perimeter drone over the southern fields adjusted its angle and slowed its sweep. Its sensors flagged movement where there should have been none. The land beyond New Crest had been empty for months. No roads. No settlements. Only soil, stone, and old growth.The drone recorded a lone figure walking barefoot through the grass. The person did not carry light. The ground beneath their feet glowed faintly with each step. The drone zoomed closer. The glow did not burn. It spread slowly, like frost forming in reverse.The figure stopped. They knelt. The drone feed cut for three seconds. When it returned, the soil beneath the figure had changed. Crystalline veins ran through the dirt. They pulsed once, then went still. The figure remained kneeling. Their head tilted back. Their eyes glowed faint gold.In New Crest, the alert passed through systems without urgency. No alarms sounded. No emergency protocols engaged. The Comfort smoothed the
Chapter 247. Kevin’s Confession
The door to the upper archive closed with a soft seal. No lock engaged. No guard waited outside.Jonah stood near the window, his back to the room. The city stretched below him in layered light. The Comfort drifted through the air like a low pressure change. It did not hum. It did not pulse. It simply existed, smooth and even.Footsteps crossed the floor behind him. They stopped three paces back. Kevin did not speak. Jonah waited.The silence lengthened. The city lights below shifted in slow waves, matching one another without lag. A flock of delivery drones altered course at the same instant, as if sharing a single thought.Jonah kept his hands on the stone ledge. His fingers pressed until the skin paled. Kevin cleared his throat once. He did not try again. Jonah said nothing.Kevin moved to the table at the center of the room. He set something down. Metal tapped stone. The sound echoed too sharply.Jonah turned. Kevin stood with his shoulders slumped forward. Dark rings marked the
Chapter 246. Council of Unease
The council chamber was silent before it even began. The domed ceiling reflected muted light from the hybrid resonators along the walls. Jonah stepped through the entryway, the stone floor cold beneath his boots. The hum of the city outside seemed distant here, absorbed into the polished surfaces and the quiet hum of the machines stationed in corners.At the front, representatives had already gathered. Humans sat stiffly on benches carved from bio-luminescent stone, their hands clasped or resting on knees. Breath-Born interfaces hovered in stilled patterns above their nodes, awaiting input. Hybrids, standing on raised platforms, pulsed faint streams of light across their skin, synchronizing in patterns that conveyed collective attention. Jonah felt the subtle pressure behind his eyes as he entered, the shared presence of a network that had grown far beyond what he had ever imagined.He counted faces. Some humans were familiar, leaders from distant settlements and emissaries from c
Chapter 245. The Eden Frequency
Jonah sat alone in the monitoring room, the glow of the city beneath him muted by the late-night haze. Screens lined the walls, each one alive with feeds from across New Crest, and beyond. He ran his fingers over the control panel, checking signal strength, adjusting filters, running analyses he had long since memorized. Then the first anomaly appeared.A soft spike on the neural-sensor array. Not sound. Not vibration. A pressure felt behind the eyes, like the hollow of a hand pressing lightly against a skull. Jonah paused. The graph jumped again, slight, precise, almost imperceptible to anyone not looking for it.He toggled the filter. The spike synchronized with another feed, halfway across the hemisphere. Hospitals. Trauma wards. Emergency response centers. Jonah watched footage from one ward: a child convulsed, a nurse leaning over, panic in every motion, and then it stopped. Mid-motion, the child froze, limbs still. The nurse blinked. Her hands lifted, trembling, and then lo
Chapter 244. Jonah’s Dream of Silence
Jonah woke before the sun, gasping. The bed beneath him had not moved, yet the air felt heavy, as though it carried a memory he could not place. His hands gripped the edge of the mattress, knuckles whitening. Outside, the towers loomed like sentinels, their usual hum fractured. He could hear it immediately: the pulse was off, skipping beats, a stutter in the rhythm that had guided the city for decades.He swung his legs over the side, boots hitting the cold floor with deliberate weight. The wind through the open window cut across his face, sharp, stirring papers that lay stacked on the workbench. Instruments blinked in a half-sleeping rhythm, lights cycling slower, colors blurred, gauges rising and falling without pattern. The hum from the hybrid grids outside was erratic, and even the low-frequency vibrations that ran through the stone foundations of New Crest shivered with uncertainty.Jonah stepped to the window, hands pressed against the cool glass. Below, the city seemed wron
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